Pure genius. It's the only thing I can say to describe this game. Gameplay, graphics, story; all reach or pass the apogee of current videogame experiences.

The premise is simple: 16 giant monsters (Colossi) roam the land, and you gotta take em down. All you have is your sword, a bow and arrow, and your trusty horse. You start with these tools, and it's all you ever get or need.

The story presentation is minimalist, but very powerful. In the opening you are simply shown your character carrying a young woman to an altar. When he arrives, a booming voice tells you that if you wish to bring her back to life, you must kill the Colossi, destroying the idols built to them. You never get told what your character's relationship is to the girl, but he is determined to go to any means to revive her, so you set to your task.

The world is VAST and constantly streaming, no load times ever, except when you start a new game or die. From the outset you have freedom to roam anywhere you want, but you can only tackle the current target Colossus. To find it, you hold your sword to the sky and follow the reflection of the sunlight. Once you reach your destination then the real action begins...

Every colossus is effectively a "stage" unto itself. If you think you have fought big bosses in other video games, think again. For perspective everyone here can relate to, the first Colossus is about as big as Olga Flow from the end of PSO. They only get bigger and bigger (ok, there are 2 "shrimps" but they make up for their size in pure rage!) as you progress.

Taking them down is usually a 3-fold task. First you need to figure out their weak point(s), again reflecting the sun's light towards them. Second, you gotta figure out how to get onto the colossus to attack it. They definetly don't sit still for you, and once you get on them they sure as hell try to shake/knock you off. Finally, you have to maneuver around the colossus, hanging off their fur, running across their armor, and leaping from limb to limb to reach the weak points and topple the beasts.

The weak points are usually in a hard-to-reach spot where you need to be hanging to stab at it, so strategic planning of your movements is important. Time is also of the essence because you have a stamina meter, so you can't just hang on forever, and different actions will drain your stamina more quickly (say hanging upside-down by one arm as opposed to crouching so you don't lose your footing on a bucking Colossus).

I'm probably going on too long, but this game is just completely breathaking. My jaw was wide open from the moment I encountered the first colossus to the shocking ending. The contrast between the serene "traveling" segments when you are on the way to the Colossus, and the chaos and intensity during the battles gives a great pace to the game, and the music backs up every scene perfectly.

It took me about 11 hours to clear it the first time on normal, and then about 5 on hard (it's noticeably easier once you know the "tricks" to fighting the Colossi, and how to travel to them quickly. But at least hard mode gives them more HP, more weak points you need to attack, and they try to shake you off a lot harder.) There's also a time attack mode that gets unlocked after you clear the game, and the challenges are ROUGH.

Bottom line: Top notch in every aspect, easily one of the best titles on PS2, and a definete contender for my personal GOTY. The entire game feels like you are part of some epic fairy tale, and every detail shines with polish and love from the developers. It's only $40 so go buy it now!

--------------------

Steam: MrCrushin PSN : MrCrushin XBL: Mr CrushinI'm not a playa I just crush a lot.